Comments

Revised Common Lectionary Commentary

Clippings:
The Day of Pentecost - June 9, 2019

Saint Dominiccontemplating the Scriptures

Author's note:Sometimes I have material left over when I edit Comments down to
fit the available space. This page presents notes that landed on the clipping
room floor. Some may be useful to you. While I avoid technical language
in the Comments (or explain special terms), Clippings may have unexplained
jargon from time to time.

A hypertext Glossary of Terms is integrated with Clippings. Simply
click on any highlighted word in the text and a pop-up window will appear
with a definition. Bibliographic references are also integrated in the
same way.

Acts 2:1-21

The fifty-day wait for the Holy Spirit is only found in Luke/Acts. In John
20:22, Jesus breathes on the disciples, and says “‘Receive the Holy
Spirit’”. This raises the question: is Pentecost the same as Jesus’
gift of the Spirit? I present two possible answers:

V.
4 reports that the disciples were speaking in different languages, without
specifying which; v.
8 reports that members of the crowd were hearing in different languages.
Perhaps members of the crowd were given a specific gift of the Holy Spirit, that
of interpretation of the tongues, and simply reported hearing their own language,
so that the message might reach everyone.

In John
20:22, the Holy Spirit comes to the disciples, but in Acts he/she comes to (or
is seen by) many.

Pentecost is the point where the true Israel
starts to separate itself from unbelieving Jewry, to become the Church. Jews from
greater Israel (the
Diaspora) witness the event.

This story is reminiscent of Isaiah
66:15-20, especially the
Septuagint translation. Isaiah
66:18-20 (NRSV) says, in part: “I am coming to gather all nations and tongues;
and they shall come and shall see my glory, and I will set a sign among them. ...
They shall bring all your kindred from all the nations ... just as the Israelites
bring a grain offering ...”

Verse 1: The Feast of Weeks, celebrating the wheat harvest, was fifty
days after the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover; hence the name Pentecost
. Only from the second century AD on (notes
JBC) was the giving of the law to Moses also celebrated as part of the Feast
of Weeks. Leviticus
23:15-21 commands that this festival be celebrated, and how.

Verse 1: “all together”: These may be the 120 people of
1:15: “In those days Peter stood up among the believers (together the crowd
numbered about one hundred twenty persons) ...”.

Verse 1: “in one place”: perhaps the house of
1:13: “When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where
they were staying ...”. The scene changes to an arena or other public
area in v.
5.

Verse 8: Here they speak in foreign tongues (or, in some cases, dialects),
but in 1 Corinthians
14:1-33, their form of speech is incomprehensible. [
NOAB]

Verses 9-11: The list is generally from east to west, but Judea is out
of place. This list is unlikely to be of Lucan origin, for Luke tells of missionary
work in Syria, Cilicia, Macedonia and Achaia. Also, "Cretans and Arabs” (people
of Jewish descent, from Arabia) seems to have been tacked on by a later hand.
[
JBC]

Verses 12-13: This prefigures Israel’s general rejection of Jesus’
teaching, later in the book.

Verses 17-21: The citation from Joel
2:28-32 follows the
Septuagint translation. A most important guide to Luke’s intentions is
the series of alterations he (or his source) has made in the quoted text to produce
a pertinent testimony:

“In the last days”: This phrase replaces afterwards,
making the prophecy more plainly the
eschatological vision it already is. It is understood in the expanded sense of
the time of the Church: see
1:6-8.

“they shall prophesy” (v.
18): Luke has added this phrase. While Jesus’ status as a prophet is never
more than obliquely affirmed in Luke-Acts, and neither is the risen Lord’s
status as a prophet like Moses, yet it is an important ingredient of Luke’s
theory of the necessity of the Passion and the nature of Jesus’ earthly ministry.
Luke brings out that the fact that the apostolic mission is part of the eschatological
prophecy of Jesus himself in the Temple sermon (
3:22-26).

“portents in the heaven above and signs on the earth
below” (v.
19): Luke has added “above”, “below” and “signs”
for much the same reasons. [
NJBC]

This is really the story of the city with a tower in its midst rather
than The Tower of Babel. [
NJBC]

Perhaps technological advances cause the people to think that they can be gods.
[
FoxMoses]

Chapter
10 tells of the multiplication of people since the Flood, but relatively few
people have settled in their God-appointed (or God-given) lands. People and their
lands are mentioned in
10:5-7,
20,
25,
31,
32. [
NJBC]

Comments: All the people settle in one place (disobeying God’s
order): In
1:28, God has ordered humankind to “... fill the earth and subdue it”,
i.e. take possession of it. V.
4 implies that they are disobeying God’s order.

Verse 1: “same words”: One translator offers set of words
.

Verse 2: “land of Shinar”:
10:9 tells of “Nimrod, the mighty hunter”. Legend says that he was
the founder of Babylon.
10:10 says “The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, and Accad, all
of them in the land of Shinar.”

Verse 4: “tower”: A ziggurat was a stepped temple with a rectangular
or square base. The god was thought to appear on its summit. The ziggurat at Ur,
dating from the late third millennium, is well preserved.

Verse 4: “let us make a name for ourselves”: Compare this
with what God says to Abraham in
12:2: “I will make ... your name great”. [
NJBC]

Verse 6: “this is only the beginning ...”: While the phrases
can be applied to any ancient Near East religion, here God is sovereign over the
other heavenly beings: see v.
7. [
NJBC]

God guards
against future mass assaults on divine sovereignty; he distances himself from humankind.
God wins: he scatters the peoples to the lands he has given them. The symbols of
the unfinished tower (v.
8), dispersal of the builders, and (in essence) making fun of the mighty name
of Babylon, also repudiates the culture from which the Israelites sprang. Recall
that Abraham was from Ur, also in “the land of Shinar”. The story also
explains, to primitive people, how languages arose. With the scattering of the peoples,
Genesis leaves primeval history behind and concentrates on God’s own people,
Israel. The separation between God and humans will continue until Pentecost –
when God’s Spirit will come to dwell permanently with and in the faithful.

Chapter
10 tells of all then-known peoples, but after our story, the author focuses on
Israel: he traces the lineage down to Abraham.

The story can also be seen as further mounting of the load of sin on the people.
The prophets will announce the reversal of the process of deepening sin (e.g. Isaiah
2:1-5, “... Many peoples shall come and say, ‘Come, let us go up
to the mountain of the Lord, to the
house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in
his paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the
Lord from Jerusalem ...”); this
prophecy is fulfilled at Pentecost.

Verse 29: “breath”: The Hebrew word is ru’ah.
It is also translated as spirit and as wind. [
JBC]

Verse 30: “spirit”: Again ru’ah. Wind
is also intended. The west wind brought rain; it renews the earth with vegetation.
[
NJBC]

Verse 35: This verse is a prayer for the restoration of the original,
intended harmony of creation. [
NOAB] The presence of sinners might cause God not to send the fall (autumn) rains
as a punishment; hence the wish that they be eliminated. [
NJBC] Characteristically, the Revised Common Lectionary omits this half verse.

Verse 35: “Praise the Lord
!”: This belongs to the next psalm. Like Psalm
106, Psalm
105 originally began and ended with Hallelujah! (meaning “Praise the
Lord!”) [
NOAB]

Romans 8:14-17

Verse 12: “debtors”:
BlkRom says that we are under obligation to God, rather than being “debtors”
– for there is no actual debt. The same Greek word is used in
1:14-15: “I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise
and to the foolish – hence my eagerness to proclaim the gospel to you also
who are in Rome.”

Verse 13: It is still possible for a baptised Christian to be tempted
to live immorally, “according to the flesh”. We should make use of the
Spirit: this is the debt (in an accounting sense) that we owe Christ. [
JBC]

Verse 13: Paul says in
6:12-13: “... do not let sin exercise dominion in your mortal bodies, to
make you obey their passions. No longer present your members to sin as instruments
of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from
death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness”.
See also Colossians
3:5 and Galatians
5:24. [
CAB]

Verses 14-15: Note Paul’s play on the word pneuma, here meaning
spirit or Spirit. We are made “children” by the Spirit;
we are not slaves. [
NJBC]

Verse 14: God’s action continues in the life of the believer. See
also
2:4 (“... Do you not realize that God's kindness is meant to lead you to
repentance?”); Galatians
5:18 (“... if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law”);
1 Corinthians
12:2. [
CAB]

Verse 14: The Spirit not only enables us to cast aside materialism and
immorality, but also animates us and activates us in the carrying out of the mission
Christ gave us.

Verse 14: “children of God”: In Galatians
4:24-26, Paul tells us: “Now this is an allegory: these women are two covenants.
One woman, in fact, is Hagar, from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery. Now
Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she
is in slavery with her children. But the other woman corresponds to the Jerusalem
above; she is free, and she is our mother”. [
CAB]

Verse 15: “slavery”: Paul speaks of the Christian as a slave
in Romans
6:16, 1 Corinthians
7:22 and Ephesians
6:6, but only to make a specific point. Actually the Christian is a son
or daughter (he writes in Galatians
4:7 “you are no longer a slave but a child”), empowered by the Spirit
to call upon God himself as a Father. It seems to be the Holy Spirit that constitutes
Christian adoptive sonship – because it is the Spirit that unites people to
Christ and puts them in a special relationship to the Father. [
NJBC]

Verse 15: “adoption”: The Greek word used here is also found
in
8:23;
9:4; Galatians
4:5; Ephesians
1:5. [
CAB] In
9:4, Paul uses it to describe Israel as chosen by God. This Greek word is not
found in the
Septuagint, probably because adoption was not common until more recent times
among Jews. It was known in Hellenic society, and was quite common among the Roman
aristocracy, as a means of acquiring a worthy heir. When a man had no heir, or only
a dissolute one, he would choose someone to adopt - sometimes even a freed slave
- who would become the heir both to the man's property and also to his reputation
and station in the community. Paul’s use of the term shows that Christians
have status with God.

Verse 15: “When we cry”:
NJBC offers which enables us to cry. As in
9:27, “cry” has the sense of cry aloud, proclaim.

Verse 15: “Abba”: This is the Aramaic word of familiar address
to a father. Paul also uses this word in Galatians
4:6. Jesus addressed the Father as Abba in his prayers: see Mark
14:36. [
NOAB] In the Greek text of Luke
11:2, the Lord’s Prayer begins Abba. The early church used this
title for the Father, as indeed does a Christian song sung today.

Verse 16: In proclaiming that God is our Father, we are stating that we
recognize ourselves to be adopted by God. The Spirit shares with us in this recognition,
and is the mechanism by which we are active as sons.

Verse 16: “children”: In Roman law, both a slave and a son
belonged to the household, but a son (unlike a slave) had status. Our status puts
us in a special relationship with the Father and the Son. Of course, a son is free,
but a slave is not.

Verse 17: “heirs of God”: Paul discusses the promise to Abraham,
that he would be the “father of many nations”, in Chapter
4 (especially
4:17). It is now fulfilled. [
CAB]

Verse 17: “joint heirs with Christ”: Christ has already received
a share of the Father’s glory; the Christian will receive a share. In Jesus’
time, a son inherited his father’s estate; God’s estate is his glory.
[
NJBC]

John 14:8-17,(25-27)

Verse 2: “my Father’s house”: Jesus has already spoken
of this in
8:34-38 (“... The slave does not have a permanent place in the household;
the son has a place there forever ...”). [
BlkJn]

Verse 3: Previously Jesus has only hinted at the possibility of the disciples
following him: in
12:26, he says: “‘Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am,
there will my servant be also’”. See also
13:36. Because the disciples follow his example, particularly in mutual love,
they can eventually be with him, whereas the Pharisees cannot: see
7:33-36;
8:21;
13:33. [
BlkJn]

Verse 5: “Thomas”: Thomas expresses their bewilderment with
characteristic bluntness: see also
11:16 (“‘Let us also go, that we may die with him’”)
and
20:24-25. [
BlkJn]

Verse 6: “‘I am the way’”: He is the sole means
of access to the Father: Jesus says in Matthew
11:27: “All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one
knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone
to whom the Son chooses to reveal him”. See also Luke
10:22; John
1:18;
3:3 (to Nicodemus);
6:46; Acts
4:12 (Peter’s speech before the Council) Romans
5:2; Ephesians
3:12; Hebrews
10:20. [
BlkJn] [
NOAB]

Verse 6: “‘I am ... the truth, and the life’”:
Jesus is all-sufficient because he is both God and human. [
BlkJn]

Verse 6: “the truth”:
1:14 says “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen
his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth”.

Verse 6: “the life”: See also
1:4;
6:35 (“‘I am the bread of life’”),
6:48;
11:25 (“‘I am the resurrection and the life’”).

Verse 7: On Jesus being God,
1:1 says “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God”. In
10:30, Jesus says “‘The Father and I are one’”.

Verse 7: “‘If you know me’”: They can know him
since he is a human.

Verse 7: “you do know him”:
BlkJn offers you are getting to know him. Because they know Jesus, they
are getting to know the Father.

Verse 13: For variants, see Matthew
7:7-8;
18:19;
21:22; and in Johannine writings, see John
15:7,
16;
16:23,
24,
26; 1 John
3:21-22;
5:14-15. Sometimes Jesus will answer the request, and sometimes the Father will
answer when asked in Jesus’ name. At times the Father is addressed directly,
and at times neither Father nor Son is specified (but one presumes that the Father
is meant). [
NJBC]

Verse 13: “in my name”: This means ask as Jesus’
representative, while on his business, rather than invoking Jesus as a kind of
magic spell. The meaning here is the same as when Jesus speaks of having come in
his Father’s name in
5:43 and
10:25, and when Acts tells us that the apostles performed miracles in Jesus’
name: see Acts
3:6 (healing of a man lame from birth),
16;
4:10;
16:18 (a slave girl is cured). [
BlkJn]

Verse 16: “give you another Advocate”:
BlkJn offers give you another as your Champion. The Greek word translated
Advocate is parakletos, sometimes transliterated as Paraclete. While
in 1 John
2:1 it refers to Christ, in John it refers to the Holy Spirit: see also v.
26 and
15:26;
16:7. The Greek word is derived from a verb meaning call to one’s side
. The Latin word advocatus has the same meaning, but there is a distinction
to be made between the Greek and Roman judicial systems. In a Roman court, an
advocatus pleaded a person’s case for him, but a Greek parakletos
did not: in the Greek system, a person had to plead his own case, but he brought
along his friends as parakletoi to influence the court by their moral support
and testimony to his value as a citizen.
BlkJn argues that the sense in John is of giving help – as is usually
the sense in the New Testament, e.g. “console” in 2 Corinthians
1:4 and “exhort” in Romans
12:8. A Champion is one who supports by his presence and his words.

Verse 17: “whom the world cannot receive”:
REB and
BlkJn translate the Greek as whom the world cannot accept. To receive
the Spirit, people must abandon their hostility to God.

Verse 17: “abides with you”: The Greek word is the same one
translated as “stay” in
1:38-39, where two disciples stay with Jesus. [
BlkJn]

Verses 18-20: The Holy Spirit imparts Christ’s life and unites believers
to God. In his speech on the Day of Pentecost, Peter says: “Being therefore
exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise
of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you both see and hear” (Acts
2:33). [
NOAB]

Verse 20: “On that day”: i.e. the day of Christ’s resurrection.
Then they will realize that they have been incorporated into the divine society of
the Father and the Son. They will then share in the divine life. [
BlkJn]

Verses 21-24: Fellowship with Christ is dependent on the love which issues
in obedience. [
NOAB]